raising minnows

i found this site while searching the web for answers on raising my own bait . i hope someone here can help me out . first of all , i fish for bass in the shenandoah river of va . during the winter months especially , i like to use live minnows . problem is this last winter i had a hard time catching bait , seemed like every creek was empty of bait , or there were only a scattered few minnows to be found . so i have a wild idea to start my own minnow farm . im not planning to sell bait , just to raise enough for me to use through out the year . i have constructed a small pond of app 9x9x4 . the pond has a liner in it . i have a good flow of water , a biological filter i made from a 5 gallon bucket filled with lava rock , the pond is built on concrete , in a building , with windows beside where it catches evening sun . i contacted a fish hatchery about 2 hrs from my home , nearest i could find , and told them about my setup . they told me fatheads would be my best bet . so ive placed 2 wood palets , along with 2 car tires on the bottom , witch they told me to do for the fish to spawn under . i went last tuesday afternoon to purchase the fish from them , got home and was kind of upset to find out that half of the fish are rosey reds , half are fathead . i wanted to see if anyone here has ever sucessfully raised minnows . if so , would this setup work , or not . also i really wanted to raise shiners but was told by the hatchery that theirs would spawn by mid april or may , so i chose fatheads cause i was afraid of just sitting on the fish until next year if i missed their spawn this year . fatheads . i was told would spawn multiple times through out the summer . any help or advice on this subject would be appreicated .

I have a 1/4 acre pond with submerged trees and pallets for spawning structures. I intentionally purchased rosie reds because I knew how deadly there are when it comes to bass and crappie fishing. Yes fatheads will spawn roughly 4 times a summer, april,may,june and september. They will stop spawning when the water hits around 80 degs and will resume one more time in September. The fish will stop spawning when they run out of room. Your idea sounds fine, except that you are missing 1 major factor zooplankton and phytoplankton. Since you have built this indoors without thought of a natural food source you will have to feed them. Also your biofilter is too small to properly clean the approx 2,500 gallons of water. 1 female fathead will produce between 80 and 300 offspring/spawn. You willl run out of room after the first spawn and the fatheads will starve. I predict your project will fail. You just do not have sufficient room or food to succeed. This not what you want to hear,I know, but quickly you will realize what I am telling you is true.

actually,i am feeding the minnows. they get sunlight through windows right beside the pond,in the afternoon.when i notice that the minnows have spawned , i plan to seperate the minnows into smaller holding tanks that i have , and remove the spawning structure from my breeder pond . my pump moves 1000 gal per hour . and i put micro lift bacteria in the pond upon setup . im not planning to let the minnows spawn all season like i said im not selling , just fishing . is this better .

It seems to be alot of work for the amount of minnows that you may spawn. The addition of bacteria was not needed as the minnows and air movement will supply the bacteria or just a handful of dirt. If there is any structure in the 2,400 gallon tank the fatheads will try to spawn on it upside down. I think that the biofilter should be a minimum of a 55 gallon barrel and the water to enter the barrel on the bottom and flow upwards over the media. Depending on the amount of minnows that are in the tank after the spawn a second biofilter might be needed to act as a polishing filter. I am not attempting to hijack your hopes and desires, but I am in the wastewater consulting business and assist people treating millions of gallons of sewage.

well since the plan is already in motion,im going to stay with it for now.the bio filter i made is a 5 gal bucket with the pump in the bottom.then i placed the lava rock on top of that.i cut a notch in the bucket and hung it from the side of the pond so water flows slowly into the bucket and down,kind of like a skimmer setup on a pool.as hard as bait has ben to come by here in the last few years,i guess its still worth a try.

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bio filter i made is a 5 gal bucket with the pump in the bottom.then i placed the lava rock on top of that.i cut a notch in the bucket and hung it from the side of the pond so water flows slowly into the bucket and down

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That's exactly how I have mine.

One other thing you have to consider is that you need to have water drawn through your filter, but you also have to have filter screened so that that draw doesnot eat what ever fry get produced. That is a very important consideration when spawning aquarium fish, and you are simply doing that on a larger scale. I am not so sure you will have an answer for that issue considering how tiny the fry will be.